But Newell, who was already serving a life sentence for the murder of his neighbour Mary Neal in Gateley Gardens, Norwich, in 1988, had his challenge dismissed at the Court of Appeal in London today.

Lord Thomas said: “The murder was premeditated and involved the use of an improvised weapon. It occurred in prison whilst Newell continued to serve a life sentence. The deceased took a significant time to die.

Murder victim Mary Neal.

“There was no mitigation. This was a murder where the seriousness of the offence was exceptionally high. The judge was right in making a whole-life order. This appeal is accordingly dismissed.”

Lord Thomas said: “These two cases are exceptional and rare cases of second murders committed by persons serving the custodial part of a life sentence.

“The making of a whole-life order requires detailed consideration of the individual circumstances of each case.

“It is likely to be rare that the circumstances will be such that a whole-life order is required.”

The house in Gateley Gardens where Mary Neal was found.

Anwar, from Huddersfield, was serving a life sentence for killing his partner’s two-year-old daughter.

Newell’s case came before a specially-constituted court which has declared that sentencing judges can impose “whole life tariffs” for murderers who have committed the most heinous of crimes.

Backing the use of “life-means-life” orders, a panel of five judges at the Court of Appeal increased the “unduly lenient” 40-year minimum being served by killer Ian McLoughlin, who murdered a man while on day release, to a whole-life term.

Today’s guidance from the appeal judges in London comes in the wake of a decision by the European Court of Human Rights last year in an appeal by three murderers.

Giving the panel’s ruling, Lord Thomas said the court had held that the statutory scheme enacted by Parliament which enabled judges to pass whole-life orders was “entirely compatible” with the European Convention on Human Rights.

“Judges should therefore continue as they have done to impose whole-life orders in those rare and exceptional cases which fall within the statutory scheme.

“Under the statutory scheme as enacted by Parliament, the Secretary of State has power to release a prisoner on licence if he is satisfied that exceptional circumstances exist which justify the prisoner’s release on compassionate grounds.”

Sentencing in a number of high-profile criminal cases had been put on hold - including the terms to be handed out to soldier Lee Rigby’s murderers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale - pending the Court of Appeal’s findings.

After the ruling, Attorney General Dominic Grieve, who referred the McLoughlin sentence to the court for review, said: “I am pleased that the Court of Appeal has today confirmed that those who commit the most heinous crimes can be sent to prison for the rest of their lives

“As someone who has killed three times, Ian McLoughlin committed just such a crime, and following today’s judgment he has received the sentence that crime required.

“I asked the Court of Appeal to look again at McLoughlin’s original sentence because I did not think that the European Court of Human Rights had said anything which prevented our courts from handing down whole life terms in the most serious cases.

“The Court of Appeal has agreed with me and today’s judgment gives the clarity our judges need when they are considering sentencing cases like this in the future.”

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said: “This is a timely and welcome decision. Our courts should be able to send the most brutal murderers to jail for the rest of their lives.

“I think people in Britain will be glad that our courts have disagreed with the European Court of Human Rights, and upheld the law that the UK Parliament has passed.”

Last July the ECHR held that there had been a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights - which relates to inhuman and degrading treatment - on the basis that whole-life orders were not “reducible”.

The Strasbourg-based court did not say that whole-life sentences were incompatible with the convention, but that there had to be the possibility of a review at some stage and that current laws allowing for release in exceptional circumstances were unclear.

But the Court of Appeal judges ruled that the Grand Chamber was wrong when it reached a conclusion that the law of England and Wales did not clearly provide for “reducibility”, saying that the domestic law “is clear as to ‘possible exceptional release of whole-life prisoners’.”

A power of review arose if there were “exceptional circumstances”. An offender was required to demonstrate to the Secretary of State that although a whole-life order was just punishment at the time the order was made, exceptional circumstances had arisen since.

The Secretary of State “must then consider whether such exceptional circumstances justify the release on compassionate grounds”.

Lord Thomas concluded: “In our judgment the law of England and Wales therefore does provide to an offender ‘hope’ or the ‘possibility’ of release in exceptional circumstances which render the just punishment originally imposed no longer justifiable.”

On whole-life orders in general, Lord Thomas said the Court of Appeal did not read the Grand Chamber’s judgment “as in any way casting doubt on the fact that there are crimes that are so heinous that just punishment may require imprisonment for life”.

He added: “There may be legitimate dispute as to what such crimes are - at one end genocide or mass murder of the kind committed in Europe in living memory or, at the other, murder by a person who has committed other murders, but that there are such crimes cannot be doubted.”

The judge added: “Under our constitution it is for Parliament to decide whether there are such crimes and to set the framework under which the judge decides in an individual case whether a whole-life order is the just punishment.”

So far, 53 offenders have been sentenced to whole-life orders, including McLoughlin.

Those currently serving such terms in England and Wales include Moors Murderer Ian Brady, who tortured and murdered children along with accomplice Myra Hindley, and serial killer Rosemary West.